Kahne victorious in second Duel

Date published : 11 Feb 2010 - 23:11:20

Kasey Kahne won the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race for the Daytona 500, taking his first ever victory at Daytona.The Richard Petty Motorsports driver edged Tony Stewart (Stewart Haas) on the final lap, as the former champion took on some bump-drafting help from Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya on the outside line.However that was not enough to beat Kahne's momentum on the inside, giving Ford its maiden victory with the new FR9 powerplant, which it currently does not plan to run in Sunday's Daytona 500.Stewart finished second and only became a factor in the closing stages of the race, taking the lead with six laps remaining when Brian Vickers (Red Bull) got loose and hit the wall at the exit of Turn 3.Montoya, who finished third, also led some laps in the early going, determinedly overtaking polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr (Hendrick), before Penske's Brad Keselowski passed him a few laps later with help from his team-mate Kurt Busch.The former champion led the most laps during the race and in the end crossed the line right behind Kahne in fourth and ahead of Kahne's RPM team-mate Elliott Sadler.In the second half of the pack the battle for the two available spots for Sunday's race was even more interesting than the one up front, as Mike Bliss, Casey Mears, Bobby Labonte and Scott Speed alternated positions throughout.In the end Bliss, who was running his back-up car after crashing his primary one in practice, finished 13th and earned the first spot. Behind him Speed grabbed the other one, and in doing so allowed Michael Waltrip to get into the race by virtue of his qualifying speed from last Saturday.Also making the field thanks to their qualifying effort are Bill Elliott, Joe Nemechek and former champion Bobby Labonte.Front row starter Earnhardt finished 21st in the end, with some damage to the right-rear quarter panel of his car.Boris Said did not finish the race, but he had a start in the Daytona 500 guaranteed for the first time, thanks to his Latitude 43 team getting the top-35 owner points status from Jamie McMurray's #26 car from last year.Teams will take part in two more practice sessions before Sunday's race.Pos Driver Car Laps 1. Kasey Kahne Ford 60 2. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 60 3. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 60 4. Kurt Busch Dodge 60 5. Elliott Sadler Ford 60 6. Martin Truex Jr Toyota 60 7. Joey Logano Toyota 60 8. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 60 9. David Reutimann Toyota 6010. Brian Vickers Toyota 6011. Matt Kenseth Ford 6012. Brad Keselowski Dodge 6013. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 6014. Scott Speed Toyota 6015. Paul Menard Ford 6016. Casey Mears Chevrolet 6017. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 6018. David Gilliland Toyota 6019. Robby Gordon Toyota 6020. Derrike Cope Dodge 6021. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 6022. Aric Almirola Chevrolet 6023. Dave Blaney Toyota 6024. Mike Wallace Dodge 6025. Norm Benning Chevrolet 6026. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 5827. Boris Said Ford 3